Tag: sandwich

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Steak Ciabatta

Having arrived in Birmingham I was staying at the Edgbaston Park Hotel. This is a conference hotel in the locality of the University of Birmingham. It is a nice modern hotel with a restaurant and a bar.

I wanted to grab some lunch. It was later than I had planned, so didn’t have time to find somewhere in the locality. I headed down to the 1900 Bar and looked over the menu. I decided I would have the sirloin steak ciabatta sandwich that came with chips and salad.

I took a seat with my drink (a can of San Pellegrino orange). It wasn’t long before my sandwich arrived. 

Now generally I don’t do sandwiches, but I decided that this was going to be more than a sandwich. I was right, this was a substantial plate of food. There was a portion of chips in one of those fake mini fryer baskets, a dressed salad. In the halved ciabatta roll was a generous portion of sliced sirloin steak, rocket and onion chutney.

I had asked for the steak to be cooked rare, it was tender, but I felt that the steak wasn’t really grilled, the surface lacked browning. As a result the steak was just okay, it lacked flavour, I think it could have been cooked better. I did like the chutney though.

Overall It was a nice sandwich, I liked the chips and salad.

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I generally don’t do sandwiches…

I may have mentioned before that I generally don’t do sandwiches. 

I was working in Bristol in early January, and thinking about lunch. I had the intention of visiting Finzel Reach street food market. However, as I walked the long way there I saw that the queue for Sandwich Sandwich was almost non-existent.

I was tempted, though first I checked out St Nicks and Finzel Reach first. I then returned to Sandwich Sandwich and looked over the menu.

I decided I would have the rare roast beef sandwich, along with a scotch egg.

I was asked what I wanted and ordered my food. They have a range of sandwiches and I went with the beef sandwich. On granary bread I had  overnight roasted sirloin of beef, red onion, tomato, and horseradish mayo. I believe you can add extra fillings (or take some away).

I have read many reviews of the sandwiches from Sandwich Sandwich and one thing that many have said is the size of the fillings. Even so I was still surprised by how much filling I had in my sandwich.

I’ll be honest I had to eat it with a knife and fork. There was so much beef that it did in many ways overpower the rest of the sandwich. I felt the bread just disappeared into the beef. The beef was tasty, and I enjoyed the salad and mayo.

Alongside I went with one of their scotch eggs. It looked great, had a runny yolk, but I wasn’t totally enamoured with the surrounding pork sausagemeat. I did have quite high expectations about the scotch egg, so it was probably very nice, I was just expecting something outstanding.

Overall it was an interesting sandwich experience. I can understand the popularity of the place, and I might go again, but only if there was a short queue.

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Open Turkey Sandwich

Portwall Tavern

A few weeks ago I had a delicious open sandwich from the Portwall Tavern.

This was a substantial open sandwich. There was a slice of ciabatta with salad and a good sized portion of the slow cooked (pulled) lamb. The lamb was garnished with some mint yoghurt.

When it comes to lunch, I generally don’t do sandwiches. I understand why people like eating sandwiches. I actually do like eating sandwiches, when I say I don’t do sandwiches, what I really mean is that I am not a fan of retail sandwich packs. 

The sandwich I had at Portwall Tavern was so much more than a sandwich. So it wasn’t much surprise when deciding what to have for lunch, I headed back to Portwall Tavern.

Having had the lamb, I chose to have the second sandwich on the menu, which was described as slow cooked turkey, stuffing, pigs in blankets, roasted potatoes, cranberry sauce and a jug of gravy.

I didn’t get the roasted potatoes or the jug of gravy. I did though get potato wedges and the whole dish was covered in gravy.

This was a nice piece of turkey and I liked the pigs in blankets. The gravy obviously made the bread soggy. I think it needed some greenery, some sprouts perhaps, or some coleslaw. Despite that I enjoyed the sandwich and generally I don’t do sandwiches.

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Time for a sandwich, well a nice sandwich

Portwall Tavern

Went out for a walk at lunchtime. I did consider Low N Slow at St Nick’s market, but the brisket wasn’t looking that good today, it looked excellent last week. I then went to the Finzel Reach street food market. I did consider getting lunch from She Sells Sushi, but I’ve had that quite a lot recently, so thought no. 

I had a look at La Panza next to the office, which has a £10 lunch deal. I was very tempted, but disappointed to find out that the deal had only one choice of pasta, which was a cheesy broccoli bucatini pasta, which I didn’t really fancy. I had hoped they would have a choice of pasta, but they only had a pasta of the day.

I then remembered I had enjoyed a sandwich dish from the Portwall Tavern, so went there and had the pulled lamb ciabatta with potato wedges. 

The last time I visited the Tavern I had swapped the wedges for skin-on fries, this time I didn’t. That was because last time the wedges had looked so good.

This was a substantial open sandwich. There was a slice of ciabatta with salad and a good sized portion of the slow cooked (pulled) lamb. The lamb was garnished with some mint yoghurt.

I don’t normally do sandwiches, but this wasn’t a sandwich, this was quite a substantial meal. The lamb was full of flavour, very tender, and tasty.

I enjoyed the sandwich. Generally I don’t do sandwiches.

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I don’t do sandwiches

EasyJet Airbus

When it comes to lunch, I generally don’t do sandwiches. I understand why people like eating sandwiches. I actually do like eating sandwiches, when I say I don’t do sandwiches, what I really mean is that I am not a fan of retail sandwich packs.

I was waiting for my delayed flight to Glasgow recently, and it was at an odd time. I had planned to have lunch in Glasgow, but my flight was delayed by ninety minutes. So rather than wait, I decided I would have lunch at Bristol Airport. The last time I flew with EasyJet they had run out of food, so only had snacks and drinks available.

My first choice would have been some Tacos from Tortilla, but I knew I would have to get to the gate at some point. So, in the end I went to Boots. They had some sandwiches reduced, so I got those.

Eating them at the gate I was reminded how much I don’t enjoy retail packs of sandwiches. Not sure if this was because they were chilled. They lacked flavour and in some way lacked texture as well. The bread wasn’t really bread, it was soft and cotton wool like. I ate them, but didn’t enjoy them.

Next time I will need to remember this and have something else or go without.

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Coopers Sandwich

I generally don’t do sandwiches when buying lunch. Mainly as I can easily make sandwiches myself. However I have been known now and again to get a sandwich.

Up in London I and a colleague headed off to Coopers for a sandwich. Despite going regularly going out for lunch in this area of London, I hadn’t tried Coopers before. Here you can choose the bread and filling. I went for a baguette filled with a breaded chicken escalope and salad. You can decide if you want butter or not, mayonnaise or not, and so on.

It was a lovely fresh sandwich and I really enjoyed it.

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Time for a really nice artisan baguette

Le Poivrot Sandwich. Comprising an artisan baguette filled with saucisson, gruyere, cornichons, and mustard

Sometimes you can get surprised.

I know there are lots of places in Bristol to eat that I haven’t been to, but sometimes it’s nice to find places and go and eat there that you didn’t know about.

Having climbed the Christmas Steps, Bristol’s very own Diagon Alley, and visiting the most excellent gin and whisky shop, the person behind the counter recommended a little French place on Colston Street called Le Poivrot.

It looked really nice from the outside and going through the door we were given a warm welcome from the staff.

The lunch menu was limited, but for me this was a good thing, I would rather have a smaller choice, but made with more care and better quality ingredients and tastier results.

I was tempted by the soup, but in the end went with a sandwich, not just any old sandwich, but the Le Poivrot Sandwich.

Comprising an artisan baguette filled with saucisson, gruyere, cornichons, and mustard. The bread was lovely and fresh, great snappy crust with a soft fluffy crumb. The filling was a nice combination of sharp and salty flavours.

The service was excellent. I will certainly be going again.

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I want a sandwich…

If I have a big meal in the middle of the day then in the evening I usually happy to have a sandwich.

But if I am going to have a sandwich and I have the ingredients and the time then I don’t want a ham sandwich made from ‘plastic’ white bread!

Without sounding too much like a Marks and Spencers advert, I want a sandwich made from freshly baked ciabatta bread, a thin spread of unsalted butter, filled with fresh rocket leaves, thin slices of milano salami and a dash of mayonnaise…

Sandwich

Now that’s a sandwich.

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What’s inside your sandwich?

A week or so ago I linked to a site that scanned the inside of chocolate bars, well this week it’s a site that scans the inside of sandwiches!

So if you don’t like chocolate, but do like sandwiches then this site is for you!

Apart from the obvious silliness of the whole affair it is quite useful in some respects in giving you ideas for your own sandwiches.

Go to Scanwiches

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It’s just a chicken sandwich…

I was on my way to catch a train when I stopped off at my local Costa for a coffee and a sandwich.

The coffee was a Flat White, well it was nearly a Flat White, well one can live in hope!

As for the sandwich, it was a chicken salad sandwich on malted brown bread.

So what did I think?

Lunch

Well it was a chicken salad sandwich and there isn’t much more to say.

The most flavoursome part of the sandwich was the bread. The chicken was cooked processed chicken, so tasted like chicken, well as in tasted of very little. The salad was mainly bland tomatoes and iceberg lettuce. There was some mayo which overpowered the chicken and salad, though you could still taste the bread. There was texture, as the salad was crisp, but I would have preferred a more soggy sandwich with lots of flavour.

The problem with mass produced sandwiches is that they are catering for the mass audience. The mainstream want something like this sandwich and in many ways prefer a bland sandwich over one with flavour. I remember watching a Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall programme a few years ago on chicken and he did a taste test between organic free range chicken and a supermarket battery chicken. Interestingly most people preferred the supermarket chicken. The organic one had “too much” flavour.

We as a society have got so use to bland chicken that we now prefer bland chicken. ask yourself do you prefer breast or thighs? Chicken breast has a lot less flavour than the thighs, but most people prefer breast.

As a result of this, I get a rather tasteless chicken sandwich rather than one bursting with flavour.